This invention relates to a game of the type which includes a plurality of indicia applied to a substrate which are initially hidden from view but are subsequently exposed and have some characteristic which indicates some games which are winners as opposed to other games which are merely losers. Games of this type are used as lottery type games which in many cases are bought as a simple card containing a number of covered indicia so that the player of the game can expose the indicia and can immediately indicate whether the card is a winner or a loser. In many cases the cards can be redeemed immediately for cash as indicated by the rules of the game which are generally printed on the card along with the incidia.
Various techniques for covering and exposing the indicia have previously been proposed. In one example the indicia are covered by a layer of ink which is then scratched away to expose the separately printed indicia beneath the layer of ink. In another example, the indicia are covered by a separate layer of paper or card which is perforated to enable it to be broken and torn away exposing the indicia printed on the underlying layer of card of paper. In another arrangement the indicia are printed in an ink which is invisible or transparent to the naked eye but which is rendered visible by the application of chemicals, for example solvents from a marker pen. This last technique has a relatively low level of security in that the ink while generally invisible to the naked eye can be activated by many different chemicals and in addition the ink while invisible to the naked eye often can be revealed by the use of ultra violet light.
One example of a device of the last type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,826,499 (Lenkoff).
Lottery games of this type are highly popular and opportunity remains for significant success with any new lottery which provides an interesting level of novelty and enables different promotions for other products.